Donate today to keep Global Voices strong!

Our global community of volunteers work hard every day to bring you the world's underreported stories -- but we can't do it without your help. Support our editors, technology, and advocacy campaigns with a donation to Global Voices!

South Korean singer Psy‘s tune ‘Gangnam Style’ has gone viral internationally, with its YouTube video (below) surpassing 70 million hits as of today since its release in mid-July.

This is the greatest hit in K-Pop (Korean Pop) history, and has got many Koreans talking. The scope of discussions vary from simple praise of Psy's (short for Psycho, real name is Park Jae-sang) success, reviews of his marketing and social media strategies, criticism of other mainstream pop singers heavily invested in by their record agencies, to more detailed analysis of Koreans’ deep-seated insecurity about their country.

Numerous international media, including Billboard, ABC and CNN, quickly covered this sensation, which came as a shock to South Koreans, especially entertainment moguls who have failed to make a significance entry into the American market despite spending lots of money and resources over the years.

South Korean net users, although well aware of Psy's great performance and catchy and satirical songs, are also bewildered by this explosive success not only on the local level, but also on the international level.

International viewers meanwhile comment on this YouTube video that although they love the song, they really don't understand what the song's lyrics are about. And they are not the only ones. Even many South Koreans, such as blogger Gl-Meet, admit they dont fully get the lyrics, because they are disjointed and nowhere close to having a storyline – just like many other catchy pop songs.

The basic commentary people agree is as follows: Gangnam is Seoul's poshest neighborhood and in the video Psy acts in a exaggerated Gangnam man's character who brags about how great he is at impressing girls. It can be interpreted as a satire lampooning rich Koreans’ self-importance, as well as materialistic South Korean society.

Many media outlets have not only interpreted the song but gone on further to dissect the lyrics seriously, such as a this detailed, sophisticated, but slightly over-the-top review by the Atlantic. Blogger Gl-Meet wrote [ko]:

Even to me, who doesn't have a language barrier, it is hard to fully savor the lyrics. What deeper meaning can I find from a song interrupted so many times by the phrase “sexy lady” and themes such as a guy taking a coffee in one gulp, slutty women, making really random appearances in the lyrics. I believe Psy's motive is to create fun and exciting song– by making lyrics catchy, beats zesty and an addictive and music video that is as hilarious and tacky as possible […] After some well-read gentleman and ladies of the media started ‘dissecting’ it, Gangnam Style has become quite a serious song. There are so many theories, such as Psy is mocking some prestigious classes in the Gangnam area and their sense of superiority, etc […] Well, it is a situation where “the dream's interpretation is better than the dream itself”! [An old Korean saying, similar to the phrase “Fair words please the conversation”] For them, Psy is someone who needs to be analyzed since they have a hard time taking in his meteoric success and strong sense of presence. But for us, we just take it for granted because IT IS ‘PSY’. period.

Blogger Forever 36 commented [ko] on Psy's strategy to accentuate his own character, rather than trying to blend in the idol-dominated Korean music industry, saying it deserved high praise compared to the over-the-top K-Pop world:

Ironically, Psy's success revealed how small K-Pop markets (but how exaggerated they) were. Till nowadays, most of K-Pop artists who went abroad were idol singers and they only won over small [international] fan groups but failed to garner wide support from the mass public. Frankly speaking, those idol stars’ musical quality as singers are abysmal. They have their own professional song writers in residence and are busy just learning and repeating well-choreographied dance moves and typical songs. Only several members of the idol group sing well. They may be good-looking but just to us. And there were no particular market strategies for international audiences. They just visited foreign recording houses and begged them to promote their songs. When that did not work out, then they just shut it down […] Psy is not actually that outstanding an artist. He is not that good at singing or rapping and he is not even good-looking. What made Psy exceptional among other musicians is that he knew his place [how he is perceived] so well. So he went on a different track: rather than playing all sophisticated with fancy music, he chose to play it kitsch/tacky.

What they [referring to Psy's agency] contributed in Gangnam Style's success is that they have produced the music video and uploaded it to YouTube. That's it. They never intervened in the process of how the content was spread, being parodied and gained numerous reactions. This is where the companies who try to pull off so-called ‘social marketing’ do it all wrong. When you intervene in the process, hoping to control, it backfires. […] In case of the Wonder Girls [Korean idol girl group who tried to break into the United States market but failed], after their song ‘Tell Me’ went viral in Korea, in their next song they designed choreography that was easy to follow, intending it to go viral once again. But this unnatural distribution method failed.

Blogger SOMDA, in a blog post entitled ‘Don't Over-react’, points out [ko] the fact that Koreans can be overly self-conscious over how others view them. The blogger stressed how Koreans have reacted to Psy's international fame demonstrates their low national self-esteem:

The most recent case would be how people reacted to Psy's Gangnam Style video that went viral internationally. And there are major two reactions to it […] First, there are the people so fervently welcoming the news– it shows their nationalistic pride that make them think “hey, we can do this”. But actually this is sad. It comes from the fact that Korea had long been treated as some sort of secondary country, first by the Western world and also by Japan in the Asian region. They now feel proud about the fact they have appealed to (more) developed countries.

Secondly, there are people who have turned cynical. They want to attack those people who naively feel so victorious. But they don't realize that they are the one who are overly conscious about our nation's status in comparison with other well-to-do nations. By acting aloof and cynical, they want to protect themselves from dissapointment. But this kind of reaction also derives from low self-esteem and in fact shares the same origin with the over-enthusiam. […] People who feel insecure about themselves try to define themselves with other's eyes. And this applies to how South Koreans see their country.

I think the song was such a hit in the Western world because of these factors:

1. The disco beat was catchy and the chorus line “Oppa Gangnam style” easy to repeat at full voice even under the influence of drink when at a party.

2. The video was OBVIOUSLY intended to be funny and touched a lot of issues including the desire for young women to chase anyone rich…, the ability of plain men with money to catch these girls, horses and horse lovers.

3. The dance move was new, (and probably tied in with the horses in that it could be interpreted as a gallop, almost) This would be sure to appeal to Jamaicans and many Americans who are always on the look-out for the latest dance moves to take to the party. It was a dance hall queens dream.As well, this electronic sound is now the sound of the New Open World,
fast and slightly inharmonious..but most importantly DANCE -ABLE! Almost every culture has a MOVE that can work with Gangnam Style.

4.Slightly chubby people were not left out and one was actually the STAR of the video, which was refreshing and probably drew in an entire 30% more views as it was not necessary to be thin to be popular (or do the dance)

4. The ladies in the video were in fact really ‘sexy’ and had real legs, not sticks, so even men in Jamaica and other nations who prefer heavier women had some eye candy.

I believe that South Korean music is excellent in all its forms…rather than fretting about the fact that so much effort was put into the other groups that did not bear fruit, why not consider that these very efforts BROUGHT SOUTH KOREAN MUSIC slowly but surely to the forefront of the music scene, so that when GANGNAM STYLE came along, something with which EVERYONE could identify (parodying the issues of the day that affect us all), the world was now RIPE to accept it. So it is not so much a Breakthrough, as a steady climb and “OPPA” made it to the top much easier because of all the hard promotional work that had been done by others in the past presenting excellent music for the world to appreciate. It is working!

As an old Chinese man in our community once scathingly said of a young rapid riser in our town ” “Man wear sampatta, mash makka mek barefoot man pass” in other words, “someone in a higher position (with shoes) walked the path and crushed the thorns so those below (barefoot) can pass through”

Don’t forget work done by Communities such as Viki.com where I first saw LIE TO ME, and CITY HUNTER and decided that Korean men MUST be the most handsome men in the world. I even began learning Korean and Thai because of watching Dramas and Lakorns on Viki and Youtube. Since I am OLD (over 50) an Ahjumma, I guess younger people in countries like mine have ALREADY found those sites and are interested in knowing how people in Asia think. I was both pleasantly surprised and disappointed to realize they are the same as US! (Maybe not, but the television shows make it appear so)